Challenge
by Lauren Wagner
Summary: Based on a Disney Comic:Pintel and Ragetti issue a challenge to Will and Elizabeth in order to prove their worth as pirates.


Watching Will and Elizabeth trying to act like pirates had become their new favorite pastime; besides watching Jack and Barbossa argue over who was the captain of the Pearl.

Ragetti and Pintel were enjoying their day off by leaning on the railing and watching the couple try to tie off the sails.

Technically, it was just Ragetti's day off. All musical pirates were given Saturday, the Sabbath, off to do as they wished. He had asked Barbossa if Pintel could also have the day off, but when the man originally refused, he promptly stopped playing his lyre for a few days and soon Barbossa gave in and let Pintel share his day off as well.

"They aint doin' et righ'." Ragetti noted.

"Aye." Pintel agreed.

Soon enough the knots came undone and there was a mad dash to get the sails back in order.

"I knew et. Bootstrap's boy didn' tie et righ'!" Ragetti sighed. "'is da' was much betta a' makin' knots! Do ye rememba wot 'is challenge was? 'e tied a triple monkey fist!"

"Tha' was amazin'."

The two were silent for a while more before a wicked smile suddenly crossed Pintel's face.

"Oy, Rags?" he asked, loud enough so that everyone could hear them.

"Aye?"

"Those two aint passed a challenge yet 'ave they?" Looking down at the ground, Ragetti thought for a moment before he then got it and he looked up and smiled, giggling.

"Nope!"

"So they aint pirates?"

"No, an' tha' means they don' belong on the Pearl!"

Frowning, Will turned to look at the two pirates with his hands on his hips.

"What are you two going on about?" he demanded.

"Every person wot wan's ta be a pirate 'as ta accep' an' pass a challenge!" Ragetti explained with a smile. "If'n ye don' ye 'ave ta go o'er the side!"

"That's ridiculous!" Elizabeth cried. "I've never heard of this!"

"But it is true." Barbossa said, seeming to just appear behind the couple suddenly. "I was going to let ye two slide, but now that a challenge has been issued, ye need to accept."

Turning to Ragetti and Pintel, he gave them a small smile.

"And what kind of challenge were ye thinking of?"

Pintel immediately grabbed Ragetti and pulled him into a small huddle.

"Wot do ye fink? Fightin' us in a dual?" he offered.

"'ow abou' makin' a nice lamb dinner?" Ragetti tried with a smile.

"A wot?!" Pintel roared, looking at Ragetti as if he were mad.

"How are those two pirates?" Will sighed, shaking his head.

"'ow the feck is makin' a lamb dinner bein' a pirate?!" Pintel demanded. Ragetti shrugged a bit, looking down at the ground.

"Ye try lookin' fer rosemary ou' 'ere!" he said.

"You know, Will…I think that beating these two in a fight should count as a challenge." Elizabeth purred.

Will smiled and nodded as he slowly drew his sword.

"I think so too!"

"I can' believe ye fink makin' a lamb dinner is a challenge!" Pintel said, drawing his sword. "A figh' is wot they need!"

"A lamb dinner tastes betta." Ragetti shrugged.

"Hey!" Will shouted.

"Wot?" Pintel demanded.

Will hurled his sword with deadly accuracy, and he knocked Pintel's cutlass out of his hand, cutting the palm badly.

"Pint!" Ragetti cried out in surprise, drawing his own cutlass in anger as he glared at Will.

"You're mine!" Elizabeth said, stepping in front of Will with her own sword drawn.

Ragetti hesitated, biting his lower lip.

His hesitation left him however when she charged at him, swinging her sword.

"Those two idiots are going to lose." Barbossa sighed as Jack the monkey leapt onto his shoulder.

"Stop bouncin' aroun'!" Pintel protested, chasing Will around the mast, unable to catch up with him.

"What's wrong, Pintel? Those extra helpings slowing you down?" Will laughed.

"Et's no righ' ta 'it a girl!" Ragetti protested with a whimper, using his cutlass to block all of the blows Elizabeth was raining down on him. She soon had him with his back pressed up against the mast, and she smiled as she winked at him.

"What's the matter?" she taunted him. "Afraid to fight me?"

The truth was; Ragetti could have killed her numerous times when she left herself open, but he chose not to. He refused to kill her based on the principle that women were smarter and gentler than men, and that they needed to be protected and not harmed.

Elizabeth did not have such principles and once she saw her chance, she drove her sword deep into his shoulder, making him drop his cutlass and cry out in pain.

"Rags!" Giving up the chase, Pintel ran over to his matelot instead, inspecting the wound at once with care.

"Now!" Will shouted and before the two pirates could react, Will and Elizabeth grabbed a long length of rope and ran around the mast in opposite directions, tying them tightly to the mast.

"Enough!" Barbossa shouted and as Will and Elizabeth walked over to him with smug smiles, he frowned at them and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I suppose ye think that was funny?" he demanded. "Humiliating two men like that by exploiting their weaknesses?"

"That's what pirates do isn't it?" Will asked.

"Get out of my sight!" Barbossa snarled and Jack the monkey seemed to echo this sentiment as he leaned forward and bared his teeth at the two of them in a hiss.

"Me shoulder 'urts…" Ragetti mumbled softly as Barbossa cut them free.

"Sometimes I wonder about ye two." Barbossa sighed, shaking his head. "Ye two never did take a challenge yerselves and ye didn't exactly prove yer worth with those two and…"

The look of utter dejection on Ragetti's face made him stop and he rolled his eyes as he rested a hand on his good shoulder.

"But then again…Ye _are _the only one I trust with my Piece and that's saying something."

Ragetti smiled then, looking at Barbossa gratefully.

"Fanks, cap'n." Pintel said for his friend, and taking Ragetti's hand, he led him to the doctor's cabin to have his shoulder checked out.

"They may not make good pirates, but at least I can trust them. Aint that right, Jack?"

The monkey screeched gleefully, hopping slightly on his shoulder.


End file.
